An individual entrepreneur can take things a long way – but only to a point, according to Will McKee and his son John who together authored a book entitled ‘STAR: Leadership Behaviours for Stellar SME Growth’.
A lesson that will ring true for most entrepreneurs is the fact that the excitement of starting a new business can inspire super-human performance and superior differentiating customer service to early customers.
“But it is difficult, if not impossible, for an individual to sustain such a level of attention over time, as the company expands,” the authors say. Those of us who have not yet come up against this challenge may well have been at the receiving end of this phenomenon. “Early excitement and initial customer-centric focus can lose their force in a rapid growth situation, if there is an inability to change the total organisation in line with the demands of its expansion.”
The McKees recognise that delegation in the context of growth is not always a simple process.
“Unfortunately, the precious magic (of the entrepreneurial leader) is often lost in the delegation. The well-intentioned efforts of her informal emergent team and the input of her own strengths, whether visionary, team-building, selling, managing or innovating, can be significantly diluted in terms of their effect.”
In STAR, the authors have sought to create a leadership model that will “bottle” and can be applied successfully.
Photo: Will McKee, author of STAR: Leadership Behaviours for Stellar SME Growth
For more advice and information on starting a business, go to Bizstartup.ie
